Rebecca Evans: Well, as Mark Isherwood says, hospices do provide an incredibly important service to the people of Wales and we absolutely recognise the enormous contribution that they do make. We worked alongside the hospice sector here in Wales to understand the particular financial support that they would need, and that's the reason why we've allocated £9.3 million with emergency funding to support those...
Rebecca Evans: We've worked very closely with the WCVA and the charity and third sector here in Wales right throughout the pandemic. I've met with the sector myself in order to hear the challenges that they're facing, and they are very much, as Mark Isherwood described, in terms of not being able to undertake their usual fundraising activities, for example. That's why we've put in place the specific support...
Rebecca Evans: In the first instance, I'd be encouraging those businesses to explore whether they have made the most of all the opportunities available to them by the Welsh Government. For example, were they to be businesses paying non-domestic rates, have they received the grants that are specific to businesses within the non-domestic rates sector? And also, the Welsh Government has introduced, of course,...
Rebecca Evans: Absolutely not. Of course, we have a very different settlement to Scotland, so I don't think those comparisons are necessarily valid. If you want to look at the ambition that the Welsh Labour Government has, you only have to look as far as the Wales infrastructure investment programme and the pipeline that we've set out. That extends well beyond the period for which we have set budgets, but...
Rebecca Evans: I don't need Plaid Cymru's encouragement to pursue that particular line with the UK Government vigorously, because it's something that we have been doing for some time. However, we have not yet had that clarification as to our request for flexibility, which will become much clearer to us as we move towards the supplementary estimates, which the UK Government will be publishing in due course....
Rebecca Evans: I don't accept that assessment at all. The 2020-21 budget was, of course, impacted by the very late in-year adjustments by the UK Government at its supplementary estimates, which meant that we were provided with additional funding at the very end of the year, which made it very difficult for us to manage that particular situation. Throughout Wales, our Wales infrastructure investment plan has...
Rebecca Evans: We're providing an extra £102 million to the education portfolio next year in recognition of the impact of the pandemic on children and young people. This is in addition to the uplift of £176 million for local government, which will support front-line services, including schools.
Rebecca Evans: I have regular discussions with all colleagues and particular discussions with the education Minister in terms of how we can support those children and young people who have been badly affected by the pandemic. In response to the issues that we're facing as a result of the pandemic, we have launched the recruit, recover and raise standards plan, which is accelerating learning for individuals...
Rebecca Evans: Well, it is absolutely the case that the pandemic has had a very serious impact on the hospitality sector right across Wales, which is why we're working so hard to put in place the best possible support that we can. Bed-and-breakfast businesses in particular are able to access the discretionary support that we put in place via local authorities and we've done that because we recognise that...
Rebecca Evans: Well, let's be under no illusion, Deputy Presiding Officer, that Wales Fiscal Analysis have also noted that the Welsh Government has distributed more money to businesses across Wales than we've received from the UK Government in consequentials. And that means that the package of support that we have on offer for businesses here in Wales is the most generous across the UK. A typical...
Rebecca Evans: We have committed more than £2 billion in support for businesses and £1.7 billion of that funding has already reached businesses across Wales. Last month, an additional £200 million was announced to support businesses affected by alert level 4 restrictions, which will help them with operational costs through to the end of March.
Rebecca Evans: Through the crisis we have provided the most generous package of support for businesses anywhere in the UK, with more than £2 billion committed to support businesses. This includes more than £520 million through the economic resilience fund and £360 million through business rates relief.
Rebecca Evans: Investment in our local town centres is a key priority for reconstruction across all parts of Wales. This includes investment of £2.5 million next year in Neath town centre as well as support for Bridgend from the £15 million Transforming Towns regeneration funding package.
Rebecca Evans: The consideration of children’s rights remains a priority in our budget preparations demonstrated by the range of allocations I have made to directly support children and young people, including targeted support for the most vulnerable such as £23.3 million extra for free school meals and an extra £2 million for PDG Access.
Rebecca Evans: We have successfully concluded two procurement exercises, establishing the Welsh Education Partnership and awarding a contract to complete dualling of the A465. These contracts were contested by a wide range of bidders demonstrating the attractiveness of the model and that of Wales as a place of investment.
Rebecca Evans: I'm always very happy to engage with and continue discussions with anybody who has an interest in aspects of the budget, but I think it's really important that we are clear about what's being asked. Finding additional funding from the COVID-related consequentials might be one option that is talked about, but I do think that we need to reflect on the fact that £766 million was allocated for...
Rebecca Evans: We haven't had much discussion in this debate, but we have had lots of scrutiny on our capital settlement, and it's worth recognising there that we have had an increase of £60 million to our general capital budget, but also a reduction of £191 million of financial transactions capital. So, overall, our capital funding is down in 2021-22 by £131 million. So, I think that that also...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Llywydd. Thank you very much to all colleagues for their contributions to the debate this evening. It's been useful to hear from all colleagues, and I will definitely be mindful of those comments as we move towards the final budget, as will my ministerial colleagues, who I know have been listening to the debate as well. Quite a significant number of the comments related to in-year...
Rebecca Evans: I am pleased to open this debate this afternoon on the Welsh Government's draft budget for 2021-22. Since we first had the opportunity to debate the draft budget in the Senedd, the Finance Committee and other Senedd committees have scrutinised our spending plans. Given the unprecedented circumstances we have faced, I would like to place on record my gratitude to the Finance Committee and the...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch. I move the motion to approve the Non-Domestic Rating (Multiplier) (Wales) Order 2021. The Order sets the multiplier for non-domestic rating purposes for 2021-22. In 2017, the Welsh Government set out its intention to change the measure of inflation used to calculate the multiplier in Wales from the retail price index to the consumer price index from 1 April 2018, and this has been...
